More than a decade after the publication of Inside the Sky , Aloft is a completely revised, expanded, and updated edition of this classic text, which is widely regarded as the most lyrical and incisive book on flying. In these essays, William Langewiesche considers how flying has altered not only how we move about the earth, but also how we view... more...

On January 15, 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport in New York when a flock of Canada geese collided with it, destroying both of its engines. Over the next three minutes, the plane's pilot, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, managed to glide it to a safe landing in the Hudson River. It was an instant media sensation,... more...

It is as vast as the United States and so arid that most bacteria cannot survive there. Its loneliness is so extreme it is said thatmigratory birds will land beside travelers, just for the company. William Langewiesche came to the Sahara to see it as its inhabitants do, riding its public transport, braving its natural and human dangers, depending on... more...

Selected as one of the best books of 2002 by The New York Times , San Francisco Chronicle , Boston Globe , Los Angeles Times , and Chicago Sun-Times Within days after September 11, 2001, William Langewiesche had secured unique, unrestricted, round-the-clock access to the World Trade Center site. American Ground is a tour of this intense,... more...

The open ocean--that vast expanse of international waters--spreads across three-fourths of the globe. It is a place of storms and danger, both natural and manmade. And at a time when every last patch of land is claimed by one government or another, it is a place that remains radically free. With typically understated lyricism, William Langewiesche... more...

William Langewiesche is the author of five previous books, Cutting for Sign, Sahara Unveiled , Inside the Sky , American Ground, and, most recently, The Outlaw Sea . He is currently International Correspondent for Vanity Fair , and was for years a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly , where The Atomic Bazaar originated. more...

In the essays collected here William Langewiesche considers how flying has altered not only how we move about the earth, but also how we view our world and our place in it. With vivid descriptions of the aesthetics and excitement of flight, Langewiesche also writes of the risks that go with this beauty: the perils of air traffic control, and the dangers... more...

On January 15, 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport in New York, when a flock of Canada geese collided with it, destroying both of its engines. Over the next three minutes, the plane's pilot Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger, managed to glide to a safe landing in the Hudson River. It was an instant media sensation, the... more...

In the nuclear age, arms are the ultimate commodity. And now they are easier and cheaper to acquire and make than ever before ? which means that for poor nations or non-state terror groups, weapons of mass destruction are up for grabs.
William Langewiesche looks at how nuclear weapons have gone wholesale. He visits the smuggling routes in Turkey... more...